Indian footballer M. K. Kashmina recently became one of the few women from the country to play professionally in Europe after signing for Croatia’s first-division side, ZNK Dinamo Zagreb, last month.
Dinamo is the women’s counterpart of the best men’s football team in Croatia, one that developed players such as Luka Modric, Mateo Kovacic and Dani Olmo.
Its women’s side has won the first-division title once and has finished in the top-three for the last five seasons.
“It feels really nice to get selected because we are not only playing for a new team but also a team outside India,” Kashmina said, who followed Ngangom Bala Devi, Aditi Chauhan, Manisha Kalyan and Jyothi Chauhan in playing in the top division of the continent.
Dinamo has already benefitted from the presence of Chauhan – an attacking midfielder for the Indian national team – who scored a hat-trick in the league and also in the Women’s Cup final.
Kashmina and Kiran Pisda, two youngsters from India, became the latest additions to the side, selected through Women in Sports’ trials in Kolkata, last month.
“We are truly glad that we have brought new and quality players to our team because it is important to have healthy competition among the team,” Marija Margareta Damjanovic, Dinamo’s head coach and sports director said. “We believe that they will adapt quickly and help our team to achieve our goals,” he added.
A jolting injury and violence in Manipur
In 2017, Kashmina, then a young prospect from Manipur, won her first Indian Women’s League (IWL) title with Eastern Sporting Union. She then joined Gokulam Kerala and won the IWL two more times, turning heads with her attacking prowess.
At the National Games last year, she won the gold medal with Manipur.
But early in 2023, she suffered an ankle injury that forced her out of action for the first half of the year, and then, riots broke out in her home state Manipur.
Kashmina’s career seemed to hit a brick wall. “Whatever happened in Manipur disturbed us. A lot of people from our area resorted to selling vegetables. There was no internet, and my fitness preparations took a hit, with gyms closed most of the time,” she tells Sportstar.
In 2017, Kashmina, then a young prospect from Manipur, won her first Indian Women’s League (IWL) title with Eastern Sporting Union. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Though Kashmina continued to train by herself and with her father, who himself was a state-level footballer, the family was rocked by financial trouble.
“We live close to the city area and my father drives an auto-rickshaw. How would we eat when he could not take his auto out…the area shut down with clashes all around Manipur. So, two months ago, there was a local football tournament in our area. My mother and I used to sell tea and pakoras (potato fries) there,” she says.
In June, fortune finally smiled on her. Kashmina got a chance to trial for European sides, who had come to scout for players in Kolkata.
“Uss din Eid thha,” Kashmina says with a smile.
“I had never spent Eid with my family. Sometimes, I would be at the national camp, and the other times, with Gokulam Kerala. So, I thought of staying at home and not going because my last season did not go as planned,” she adds.
“But then I thought, ‘why should I give up even without trying?’”
A chance in Europe was up for grabs and an opportunity to pull her family out of a slum in Khetri Leikai, a small settlement east of state capital Imphal.
“I cried a lot. I never brought that out (before) but there were nights when it got very difficult. After thinking a lot, I saw my parents and the people in my slum decided that this would be my final trial,” she says.
And she performed just like that, excelling in dribbling, passing and SSG (small-sided games) drills at the training centre in Rajarhat, Kolkata.
Of the 27 girls who were shortlisted for the final trials, only two made it through to Dinamo. Kashmina was one of them.
The process behind the final trials
When violence erupted in Manipur, Kashmina, recuperating from her injury, chose to train when the world slept – at the break of dawn, with her father running alongside her.
The 24-year-old would be ready after her father returned from the mosque at around 5 AM. On chilly mornings, without a soul in sight, the pair would go out running in the streets against the backdrop of barking dogs and chirping birds.
“I call him ‘Ipa’,” she reflects. “I told him that we must start our old practice regime. That involves a lot of running and he said that since I was (potentially) getting ready for Europe, this would help me to remain consistent with a large number of games.”
She would train with her father till 9 AM and then Dinku, an AIFF ‘E’ Coaching License holder, would take over the baton until noon. In the evening, she would get into activation drills herself.
“I used to run around the roads alone, a lot. That too, around 11:00 AM or noon. Some people used to even joke that Kashmina has gone mad,” she laughs.
Kashmina used to train with her father who himself is a former state-level footballer. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Her biggest motivator has been her father, Mohammed Kashim Ali.
“Everybody in Manipur knows him. His dream was to play in Europe but since that could not happen, he motivated me to achieve that,” she says.
Kashmina had another guiding light in her life, Roshni – a judo athlete who is also a dear friend of hers – who helped her in testing times.
“I come from a very humble family and Roshni helped me with my nutrition. There were times when we did not have enough money for food and she sent the money. She gets financial aid from Khelo India and from there, she helped me out,” Kashmina says.
In her last stage of training for the trials, it was Roshni that became her running partner.
“A few days before the trials, I lost a bit of weight, training with her and running with her. She used to tell me that I should save all my anger and that I needed to channel them at the trials. For three to four months, before the trials, she was instrumental in motivating me. So, I can never forget her and would like to thank her and my family for helping me reach here,” she says.
Kashmina’s worst days are now behind her. Free of injuries and, with blue socks pulled up to her knees, she is ready to rub shoulders with some of the best in Europe.
“Initially, I never wanted to be a footballer,” Kashmina says. “I clearly remember a story that my father narrated to me in my childhood, telling me to imagine that I was playing in a packed stadium, fans were cheering and journalists were running behind her to ask, ‘Kashmina, one interview, please!’,” she says.
“That story has finally come true.”
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